Evoke back at the races with return to revenue growth

The boss of the gambling group behind William Hill said that its turnaround was working after posting its first quarter of revenue growth in more than two years, driven by market share gains in its core international markets.
Evoke, which was known as 888 Holdings before it was rebranded in May, reported a 3 per cent increase in revenues to £417 million for the three months to the end of September.
Online revenues rose 8 per cent in the quarter, and 11 per cent in its core markets of Britain, Italy, Spain and Denmark, while strong growth in gaming offset “particularly customer-friendly sports results” in September that knocked revenues by about £17 million.
Those results hurt retail revenues, which fell 9 per cent in the quarter. However, Evoke said that it had recently appointed a new retail managing director who had already identified and introduced a series of measures to improve trading in the short term.
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Management made no changes to the group’s previously issued guidance for revenue growth of between 5 per cent and 9 per cent in the second half and for adjusted profit margins to improve to about 21 per cent.
Per Widerstrom, who took over as chief executive last year, said he was pleased “that the turnaround of the business is working” after posting its first quarter of revenue growth since the March quarter of 2022, adding that the company’s online business was a “clear growth engine for the group”.
He said: “We are achieving our plans to improve trading in the short term, while simultaneously radically tranforming the group’s capabilities for the long term.”
Roberta Ciaccia, an analyst at Investec, believes the numbers show Evoke is moving in the right direction, “especially as the progress seems to be backed by new products and gestures that should continue to resonate with customers and allow for consistent market share gains over time”.
Evoke was founded in 1997 by two Israeli families, the Shakeds and the Ben-Yitzhaks. The Shakeds, with a near-20 per cent stake, according to FactSet, are the biggest shareholders. The group offers online casino games, poker, bingo and sports betting. It was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2005 and has lost more than half of its stock market value since.
Evoke’s shares closed flat at 57¼p.